Luck Has It: WIRe Founder is New ESOMAR President

Trade association ESOMAR has named ScaleHouse Consulting founder Kristin Luck as President of its Council, replacing Joaquim Bretcha of Netquest who has completed his two-year term. MindSpark founder Nikki Lavoie is the new Vice President, and five of the remaining eight members are also women.

The association has a membership of more than 6000 individual professionals and over 750 companies which provide or commission data analytics and research in more than 130 countries. Its ICC/ESOMAR International Code provides a universal professional standard for the global MR industry, and its Council is responsible for providing the strategic vision of ESOMAR and management of its executive arm. For the first time in its history, ESOMAR members have elected a majority female Council, and representatives hail from Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America.

Luck, who is based in the US, runs her own management consultancy, which guides marketing and analytics firms through all stages of growth. Her previous firm Forefront Consulting Group was acquired by Decipher in 2007, prior to which she helped launch ACNielsen's first online research practice; co-founded OTX (Online Testing Exchange) with partner Shelley Zalis in 2000, and subsequently sold it to Ipsos a decade later. She is also the founder of women's non-profit MR networking group WIRe (Women In Research), which along with ESOMAR is a job board partner of MrWeb.

In total, ESOMAR has elected seven women and three men to its Council for the 2021-2022 term. Alongside Luck and Paris-based Lavoie, the team comprises Umesh Kumar (Hansa Research - India); Alain Mizrahi (Grupo Radar, Uruguay); Vanessa Oshima (Starbucks, Japan); Corinne Moy (GfK, UK); Lisa Wilding Brown (InnovateMR, USA); Joy Uyanwune (Decision Support, Nigeria); Michelle Gansle (Mars, USA); and Tom de Ruyck (InSites Consulting, Belgium). Bretcha also joins this Council as its Ex-Officio President.

Commenting on the news Finn Raben, Director General of ESOMAR, said: 'We are delighted that our Council truly reflects our member's global diversity. At a time when the issues of diversity representation on Boards is such a hot topic, ESOMAR has shown its ability to react and future-proof itself. We stand ready to continue serving our community with the new Council and ensure we maintain our relevance as the leading global business community for all data, research and insights professionals, and their companies'.

Web site: www.esomar.org .